Annual Report for the 2015-2016 Season

509 Atlantic Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11217 Phone: 917.267.0363 | Fax: 917.463.1051 | roulette.org

Roulette Intermedium was founded in 1978 in a small loft in downtown Manhattan with the mission to support artists creating new and adventurous art in all disciplines by providing them with a venue and resources to realize their creative visions and to build an audience interested in the evolution of experimental art.

Our 38th year continued to build on the promises of New + Adventurous art, with 83 evenings of avant-garde jazz, new music, and experimental opera, 14 evenings of DanceRoulette — our series of new movement, and 18 evenings of Intermedia, encompassing visual arts, film/video, poetry, and other art forms. In total, Roulette’s season presented 115 performances.

Our GENERATE Program, which supports ambitious, complex, and often large-scale experimental projects by artists at all stages of their careers through residencies, commissions, and additional production and presentation financial underwriting, offered a total of 42 world premieres, including 16 new works supported by Jerome Foundation commissions and residencies.

Roulette also continued its commitment to building an audience for new music and experimental art forms with RouletteKids and RouletteTV — our online and cable television programming.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2015-2016 SEASON

● Attendance in the 2015-2016 Season was 56,000 — an increase of 12% over FY15

● Henry Threadgill’s In for a Penny, in for a Pound, which premiered at Roulette in 2014, won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize

● Seven frequent Roulette performers were honored with 2016 Doris Duke Performing Artists Awards: Dave Douglas, Wayne Horvitz, Jason Moran, Matana Roberts, Jen Shyu, Wadada Leo Smith, and Henry Threadgill

● Roulette Kids offered four performances in partnership with Face The Music, the country's only youth ensemble dedicated to studying and performing music by living composers, introducing 262 children to New + Adventurous music

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● Roulette TV (RTV) (vimeo.com/roulettetv) — a collection of video programs that captures the creative process of live performance and allows viewers to experience Roulette’s distinctive programming in online platform and cable television

§ Completed and released 10 new programs to our online collection; filmed 21 new programs now in post-production and to be released over the next 18 months. Notable programs include:

Ø The Mixology Festival (vimeo.com/167928169)

Ø Silent Cranes by Mary Kouyoumdjian and featuring the Kronos Quartet (vimeo.com/146146275), and

Ø Elke Rindfleisch/ Sarah Weber Gallo // Let Me Try to Explain / Come again? (vimeo.com/143161753).

● GENERATE: Residencies + Commissions:

§ Jerome Commissions: Austin Vaughn, Brendon Randall-Myers, Shawn Jaeger, and Pat Spadine.

§ Jerome Residencies: Mary Halvorson, Gelsey Bell, Peter Evans, Haeyoung Kim, and Okkyung Lee.

§ GENERATE: Iktus Percussion vs Paul Pinto, The Tomeka Reid Quartet, Bloodmist + Andrew Hock + Stephen Gosling, Jen Shyu: Song of Silver Geese with MIVOS Quartet, Jade Tongue & Satoshi Haga, Hotel Elefant, TAK, Jennifer Choi + Talujon Percussion, TIGUE, “Blue” Gene Tyranny and Mary Griffin’s Recollections: Songs from Aphasia.

Guest curators and advisors for the Season included Robert Browning (Robert Browning Associates Presents), Thomas Buckner (Interpretations), Kyli Kleven (Lec/Dem), Jennifer Lafferty (New Movement Festival), Zach Layton (Darmstadt Institute’s 70th Anniversary Festival), Eli Spindel (The String Orchestra of Brooklyn), and David Weinstein (Mixology: Power Switch).

Silent Cranes. Image created by Laurie Olinder

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ROULETTE 2015-2016 ARTISTIC SEASON Concert Series of New + Adventurous Music In FY16, Roulette presented the 38th year of the Concert Series of New + Adventurous Music, its eclectic program of experimental music spanning 83 evenings and featuring an eclectic array of progressive jazz, world music, experimental rock, improvisation, computer music and new technologies, traditional and hybrid ensembles, and opera. The program drew some 7,000 attendees.

The FY16 Season officially opened on September 10, 2015 with the world premiere of John Zorn’s “Masada Book Three —The Book Beriah” — a work that he defines as his “personal answer to what new Jewish music is.” (Zorn in the Wall Street Journal.) The roster of concerts that followed in late 2015 included Gelsey Bell’s Prisoner’s Song, which the New York Times called, “uncomfortably powerful” and WildUp’s West, which was hailed as“raucous, grungy, irresistibly exuberant.”

The year finished with composer Henry Threadgill conducting his Double-Up ensemble in the world premiere of a work for three Steinway Grand Pianos, honoring the 50th Anniversary of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. (Steinway graciously loaned Roulette the additional two pianos for the occasion.)

The Series continued in 2016 with performances by Kristin Norderval, R. Andrew Lee, Jen Shyu and her Song of Silver Geese (hailed as “a bracingly dynamic, otherworldly surrealistic, envelopingly beautiful new suite” by the New York Music Daily), and the 70th Anniversary of the Darmstadt Institute Festival. In addition, the Series presented four performances designed for young audiences from Face The Music; nine concerts focused on World Music curated by Robert Browning Associates; and five music concerts programmed by Interpretations.

[DANCEROULETTE] [DANCEROULETTE]features veteran and emerging choreographers exploring innovative dance forms. In FY16, 14 programs attracted approximately 750 attendees.

In late October/November, we presented two independently curated events: ‘Sound + Movement’ and ‘lec/dem.’ The three-night Sound + Movement series — which was chosen by TimeOut NY as a Critics Pick — was focused on collaborative work in which choreographers explored the “dynamic-performativity” of live music.

Programs presented included the dance and performance project BOOMERANG with co-directors Kora Radella and Matty Davis, drummer Greg Saunier, pianist/composer Adam Tendler, and the folk band, Poor Remy and “Resurrection Revolution,” a collaboration between choreographer Patricia Parker and her husband, bassist William Parker, which combined visual art, multiple instruments, text, movement, and live projection. “lec/dem,” curated by Kyli Kleven, offered triple bill evenings of written/academically-driven works on movement that were programmed or, in some cases, combined with, movement-based time art. The choreographers/scholars presented included The Bureau for the Future of Choreography, Jessica Cook,

Photograph by Trey Pentecost

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Tess Dworman, Ayano Elson, Millie Kapp, Joey Kipp, Marissa Perell, Mariana Valencia, and Emily Wexler.

In February 2016, we once again welcomed our [DANCEROULETTE] New Movement Festival, curated by Jennifer Lafferty. Featuring 15 works over five nights, the Festival concentrated on emerging and mid-career choreographers, each with his or her unique approach to performance, composition, and dance. Highlights included Foundation for Contemporary Arts 2016 grant recipient Larissa Velez-Jackson performing “YackMan Study No 1,” Emily Wexler performing a continuation of “Hunter”, and Bessie-nominated artist Moriah Evans.

[DANCEROULETTE]in FY16 ended with three performances of choreographer/director Yoshiko Chuma’s multidisciplinary performance collective The School of Hard Knocks, an evolving work that uses dance and musical improvisation to relay the true story of Faati, a refugee smuggled from Damascus to Berlin. This latest iteration of the work was framed by video and photo documentation and installations by visual artists.

Roulette Intermedia Explorations Roulette Intermedia showcases artists who use new technologies and our extraordinary audio and video capabilities to create cross-disciplinary, genre-bending art. In FY16, the program drew approximately 1,300 attendees over 16 programs.

Performances included “beyond”, a performance created by video and installation artist Ursula Scherrer with music by cellist/synthesizer MV Carbon and vocals by Shelley Hirsch; a return of our Mixology Festival, curated in FY16 by David Weinstein, featuring five nights of nine artists — Theremin virtuoso Dorit Chrysler, Haitian turn-tablist/percussionist Val-Inc and the improviser duo Trumpet Trumpet Synthesizer, among others — whose work explores the history and tradition of electronics as it influences contemporary performance; and composer/pianist Myra Melford with National Book Award-winner Jonathan Franzen in an evening of Melford’s solo piano compositions with Franzen’s readings from his latest book.

Roulette Kids Roulette’s Performing Arts Programs also nurture young audiences through Roulette Kids, a high-quality, informative and entertaining program of experimental works by and for children that demonstrates the diversity of contemporary art. Throughout FY16, we presented four performances in conjunction with Face the Music — the only youth ensemble in the United States dedicated to the creation and performance of music by living composers and drew 262 young attendees and their guardians. The first children’s concert took place on November 30, 2015.

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GENERATE: Residencies and Commissions Roulette is not only a presenter; it is also a producer. A substantial number of works presented here each year have been nurtured by Roulette, often from conception to realization. It is these works, comprising more than 22% of our programming, that come under the rubric of GENERATE — Roulette’s response to artists’ need for more production support as they explore complex structures, large ensembles, and expensive media production. This fund builds on Roulette’s Commissioning and Residency Programs, which have supported the endeavors of hundreds of artists in its 38-year history.

In FY16, Jerome Commissions supported the work of Austin Vaughn, Brendon Randall-Myers, Shawn Jaeger, and Pat Spadine with stipends of $6,000 each. Jerome Residencies were given to Mary Halvorson, Gelsey Bell, Peter Evans, Haeyoung Kim, and Okkyung Lee with accompanying stipends of $5,000 each.

Roulette's Generate Fund also supported 20 additional artist residencies unfolding over 24 evenings of performances. These included Iktus Percussion vs. Paul Pinto; Wayne Horvitz; Tomeka Reid Quartet; Bloodmist + Andrew Hock + Stephen Gosling; Jen Shyu’s world premiere of "Song of Silver Geese" with MIVOS Quartet, Jade Tongue and Satoshi Haga; Hotel Elefant; TAK plays World Premieres of Mario Diaz de Leon & Lewis Nielson; and Jennifer Choi + Talujon Percussion: Lou Harrison Concerto for Violin and Percussion.

Other artists who performed at Roulette with the help of various other commissions include Mary Griffin and Blue Gene Tyranny's "Recollections: Songs from Aphasia" (a multimedia 'oratorio,' inspired by people regaining their speech after brain trauma and made possible with grants from the MAP Fund and NYSCA) and Yoshiko Chuma (supported in part by a grant from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation).

In 2013, we solidified GENERATE as a specific fund-raising program, inviting private donors to become commissioners and producers of these works, thereby kindling a personal link between the individual donor and the individual artist. GENERATE was the focus of our FY16 Mid Year Appeal and raised more than $12,000 in six weeks.

Roulette TV (RTV) Roulette builds interest in experimental art and its practitioners through its Roulette TV (RTV), a collection of more than 100 media programs designed to illuminate the creative process, make the

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“experimental” accessible and encourage an appreciation of the artist’s investigative, often playful approach. Broadcast on Brooklyn and Manhattan Cable Access TV and available through online platforms such as Vimeo and YouTube, RTV programs feature artist interviews and performance excerpts and last between 30 minutes to an hour.

In FY16, Roulette TV (RTV) filmed 21 new programs to add its online collection and archive of broadcast and media programs. Over the year, RTV’s Vimeo page received over 179,000 total loads, 144,569 embedded loads, 19,232 total plays, and 5,347 embedded plays.

In February 2016, we formalized our agreement with BRIC | Art Media for a prime-time hourly slot on a newly-launched cultural channel to air on Sunday evenings at 8pm.

For more information, see vimeo.com/roulettetv

Access & Outreach Roulette’s renovated theater was also designed as a much-needed resource for the arts and community organizations of the city.

In FY16, we partnered with 43 arts and cultural organizations of NYC who presented singular or multiple programs and/or events at Roulette over 70 evenings. Access partners include AbunDance Academy of the Arts, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Dancing Crane Ukrainian Cultural Center, Dancewave, La Troupe Makandal, Talea Ensemble, Toy Museum, Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, Black Women's Blueprint, One Story, PEN American Center and Young Voices / Big Sounds. Community groups include Brooklyn Japanese American Family Association, Brooklyn Tech Triangle Initiative, and Cortelyou Early Childhood Development Center. Many of these organizations make presenting at Roulette a regular part of their programming and return annually.

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FINANCIAL SUMMARY Roulette ended its fiscal year with a small deficit ($1,635) due to slightly higher expectations for government contributions, box office, and new foundation sources. The following is an overview of Roulette Intermedium’s income and expenses (unaudited) for the fiscal year, which ended June 30, 2016.

Earned Revenue $741,682

Box Office $181,004

Rentals/Fees $499,090

Other $61,588

Contributed Income $689,897

Individual $232,870

Institutional $426,067

Other $30,960

Expenses $1,433,213

Artistic Program Expenses $576,229

Personnel Expenses $549,360

Administration $307,624

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Roulette’s Board is comprised of both Industry leaders and prominent Avant garde artists.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE DIRECTORS

James S. Staley, chair Anne Hemenway William Parker

Ned Rothenberg, president Shelley Hirsch Catherine Pavlov

Paul Gertner, secretary Mimi Johnson Frances Richard

Joseph Walker, treasurer Gordon Knox Frederick Sherman, Esq.

George Lewis Laurie Szujewska

Alvin Lucier David Weinstein

Gayle Morgan Brooks Williams

(Board Members as of July 2016)

Roulette Intermedium is tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Roulette Intermedium | 30 Third Avenue, Suite 208 | Brooklyn, NY 11217 917.267.0363 | roulette@roulette.org | roulette.org